"
"Still you might discover, in some roundabout way. Write to them, under
as assumed name of course, for subscriptions to one or other cause--or,
better still, send a stamped type-written reply postcard, with a request
for a declaration for or against vivisection; people who would hesitate
to commit themselves to a subscription will cheerfully write Yes or No on
a prepaid postcard. If you can't manage it that way, try and meet them
at some one's house and get into argument on the subject. I think Milly
occasionally has one or other of them at her at-homes; you might have the
luck to meet both of them there the same evening. Only it must be done
soon. My invitations ought to go out by Wednesday or Thursday at the
latest, and to-day is Friday.
"Milly's at-homes are not very amusing, as a rule," said Lena, "and one
never gets a chance of talking uninterruptedly to any one for a couple of
minutes at a time; Milly is one of those restless hostesses who always
seem to be trying to see how you look in different parts of the room, in
fresh grouping effects. Even if I got to speak to Popham or Atkinson I
couldn't plunge into a topic like vivisection straight away.
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